Notes by Amira: A comprehensive list of possible technology resources that can be used in the classroom and beyond.

Project-Based Learning (PBL) - Lori Elliot
http://www.lorislatestlinks.com/
Introduction:
What skills do students need to be successful in the workplace:
  • Research skills
  • Collaboration/communication
  • Flexibility
  • Problem-solving
  • Time Management
What skills do students need to become productive members of society:
  • Literate
  • Get along with others
  • Responsible
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills:
  • Impacting standards
  • In order for students to be successful, curriculum needs to be changed:
o Core Subjects (not going away)
o Critical thinking
o Creativity and innovation
o Communication and collaboration
o Life and career skills
o Literacy: media, information
o Present information in a project-based way instead of feeding the information
Marc Prensky: coined terms ‘Digital Immigrant’ ‘Digital Native’
  • Talks to students: What kids want –
o They want teachers to know who they are – relationship
o Students don’t want learning to just be relevant, we want it to be real (how, why, etc.)
Learning is about finding things we are passionate about, and finding new passions and interests
Buck Institute: Explain PBL with videos
Core Standards:
  • Have students go to different websites and compare/contrast information

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Resources:

Webquests:
o Searches are more mobile – from out of the classroom into the field
  • Designed to give students are real-life practical approach to learning
o There is always a task where the students have to solve something and have to share it in a real way with a real audience
o Outline (must have these parts to be WebQuest): Intro, task, process, evaluation, conclusion, credits
o Site that gives template to create Webquests
o Other teachers post their quests on here; have ideas
o Can add pdfs, ppts, all docs so students can access everything on one site
o Tips:
  • Requires teacher scaffolding
  • Can provide hands-on resources that is parallel to what was online in case you don’t have PC access
  • Should be collaborative – where students can work together
  • Give big picture, and time limit for when they need to complete it…break it up into pieces
  • Don’t use one where kids have to have the same end product…the idea is for each students to come up with their own end results in their own way
  • eMints.org (quality webquests only)
o have a section of webquests (only post quality quests)
o free website creator (very professional looking – highly recommended) – register as an educator
  • Can set up accounts for students to create own webpages – can have them create this for the webquest/project you are teaching
  • can create webquest here, too
Idea:
  • Make your own restaurant
o Menus
o Opening a class restaurant
o Economics – use real money
o Make reservations, tip
  • Key Question to kids: what do people in the real world do to make money?
o Built a playhouse – designed, measured, and put it together
  • Making movies about various topics
Skype: (Illumine, Locus – systems that enable skype in classroom)
  • Ex: HS kids had to learn content, and teach 5th grade
  • Included visuals, video clips, personal stories
  • Bring the experts to you, or become the expert and share
  • Skype in the Classroom: (highly recommended)
o Set up for teachers to be a part of a skype experience
o They will buddy you up with people from around the country
o Sign up for free, and what are you willing to do
o Can create a project and have ppl join you, or you can join someone else’s project
Jenuine Tech site:
  • Online projects that are already set up and you just sign up (different from webquests)
  • Kids will do work and produce something to share on site
  • This school year: national parks
  • Can use VoiceThread
  • Tip: choose 1 or 2…don’t overload
Voice Thread:
  • A way for students to share what they learn
  • Insert pics, pdfs, narrations, video clips à all can be inserted into one presentation that is housed online; other people can view and provide comments
  • Use education site specifically (k-12 section)
  • Audience is bigger because it is online
By ECB.org – SurfReport:
  • Post ongoing online projects (more for middle school and HS)
  • Can find projects that may meet your curriculum – already set up, you just need to sign up to join
iEarn: site with worldwide collaborative projects
  • collaborate with a worldwide audience
  • can find a project that is already going, and can also set up a project
edutopia:
  • provides ideas – articles, videos, what are teachers doing
Bloom’s Taxanomy: for technology (bottom-top)
  • Remembering:
o Bookmrking
o Social networking
o Googling
  • Understanding
o Adavanced searches

  • Analyzing
  • Evaluating
o Networking
o Commenting/reviewing
o investigations
  • Creating
o Filming/animating
o Video production
o Wiki-in
Scaffolding:
  • Tied to content
  • Teaching in chunks
  • Clear guidance/expectations
  • Conference with students regularly
  • Provide graphic orgs/frameworks
  • Checklists.checkpoints
  • Model
  • Minilessons
Glogster: edu.glogster.com
  • Tool to get kids involved
  • Online poster maker
  • What changes from grade to grade is the level of difficulty
  • When sign on as student educator, they sign accounts for your students
Yodio:
  • Easy way to make podcasts
  • Record what students are saying and post
  • Free – can easily record and post through your phone
  • Dial into yodio, and talk into phone
  • Ideas: book reviews, tutorials, intros
  • Can look at itunes for examples – look up yodio podcasts
**Teach like a Techie:**
  • Book of 20 resources with step by step instructions
  • Lesson plan ideas./instruction
  • Get real: tips and realities


Part II of Lori Elliot:
**Newseum**
  • Current events
  • Great for writing non-fiction, current events, main idea
  • Shows front page of newspaper
Edmodo (a favorite: proven to be effective)
  • Facebook for teachers and students
  • Helps you connect with kids in a safer way
  • Can be used for book discussions, to ask questions
  • Where older kids can serve as mentors to younger students
  • Can only access each other through group with special code
  • Designed for students to have academic discussions
  • There is also a parent component – you can decide their capabilities
**Animoto**
  • Use free teacher version
  • Have to select your own photos; music is already available
o Flickr (don’t allow kids on Flickr), pics4learning (good for kids – safe)
§ Copyright free photos (creative comment sites)
  • How to create presentations that engages kids related to the content:
o Used for character ed word of the week – ie) good sportsmanship – pics of athletes that are winning, and ask follow up questions that relate to character trait à perseverance
o Social Studies: compiled pictures of Chile, with related music to build background knowledge of the country before started to talk about the earthquake that occurred there; asked questions of what they observed in pics, then showed again, then talked about the earthquake that occurred
o Math: Arrays: pictures of things in groups (donuts, coke bottles, surfboards lined up, desks lined up, shoes lined up) to introduce arrays. What do they all have in common?
§ They come in groups
§ Then watch again, and count how many things are in each picture
§ How to find out how many donuts, 3 by 4 = 12
§ Connects them to the learning
Live Binders:
  • Online digital 3-ring binder that you can set up to organize your things
o Organize sites, with specific tabs
o Kids can access it
o Can include videos






Tech Tips and Tricks: Tammy Worcester à www.tammyworcester.com
Book: 50 quick and easy computer activities:
Trrific Activity:
  • Power Point:
  • Start blank slide with vertical orientation – have students insert 2 things
o 1) Choose word art:
§ in textbox type: “I’m T-rrific Because:”
§ Textbox below – 3-5 reasons why they are T-rrific
ú 1) I play piano, etc.
comma-shift-< or > to make font big and small
command D – to duplicate slides
  • 2) Fold in half (hotdog)
o tear upper corner from folded part
o on not folded part tear down rectangle
o open – looks like a T-shirt
  • Can do this with any topic. Good for developing + views about themselves when they think of reasons why they are T-rrrific
Building Health Bodies Activity:
  • Use 2 blank ppt slides
  • On left side type Name: building health bodies by Amira Abdel-Aal
  • On right side, add a smile face from icons
  • Slide 2: add 2 rectangle on bottom (same size), and 2 other rectangle diff size – list each reason how to have healthy bodies after brainstorm
  • Cut out each shape – and put together become human body (body, face, 2 arms, 2 legs
  • Don’t usually tell kids what making from beginning
Print onto Sticky Notes:
  • PPT – page set up: change so width and height matches measurement of sticky note
  • Ex: Here’s the scoop, a note from…Tammy
  • Ex: for Rubrics: Scores for 6 Trait Student Writing
  • Checklists: Proofreading Checklist for students to use when proofreading writing
  • How to print: have 4 slides – print – 4 slides per page


Web Tools:

**Worksheetworks.com**
  • Create graphic organizers – custom made
  • Math and ELA
  • Math: provides answer key for practice sheets you create
  • Handwriting practice sheets
  • Maps for social studies
**Classtools.net**
  • Random name picker – select students, grouping, etc.
o Can use to put math facts, vocab words – kids have to respond
o Can use for review for units
  • Stop watch: egg timer (hour class)
Fur.ly (entire website)
  • Shorten multiple URLs into 1
  • Abcya.com, brainpop.com, etc (list of sites you want students to go to in a class setting, without having them have to type each one)
  • Provides navigation bar at the top of the website, can scroll from site to site
  • To edit, have to go back to main website (less flexible if make a mistake)
**Weblist.me**
  • Like Fur.ly, but more flexible, just need to have a log in (free)
  • List lasts forever
  • Same type of navigation as above
QR Codes
  • Quick Response code
  • On smart phone download QR scanner, and take pic with camera to provide you with information
  • App: QR app for iPhones
  • Can easily create your own QR code:
o Kaywa.com – can lead to any URL
  • Shortened website addresses with google: goo.gl
o Enter your site, and have it shorten it
o Highlight and shorten, post in browser and add “.QR” forms a QR code
  • Ex: have artwork, and provide QR code that will provide info about that artists; post book review in books at the school library; QR code on Christmas card that will take your friends to your pictures on Flickr

Creativity and Collaboration for Kids
Myavatareditor.com (Note: I recently tried to do this for my classroom, but unfortunately Nintendo has taken the rights of this website and is no longer in use. Nonetheless, there are other websites that take on the similar theme of creating a character with a voice.)
  • Creates avatars (character like in the Wii)
  • Class: Complete new character and write a new story about her; create how they picture the character from the story you are reading as a class; write a descriptive paragraph on character, and design it…then compare each others using their writing – see how similar they are
  • “All about Mii” – have students write poem about themselves, and paste picture that they create next to it.
  • Can save images
  • Can place images on other images…can place yourself in a pic about Grand Canyon when introducing lesson on the Grand Canyon
  • Can record in voices telling about the famous person they design, and the background they have been placed in
ArtPad:
  • **Artpad.art.com/**
  • Online drawing/paint program (Similar to imagination cube)
  • Good way to differentiate instruction:
o Instead of writing your response, or what they know, they can draw, then email it to the teacher, or save as a url.
  • Good for directed draw lesson – pictorial input chart
  • Can use for teaching math – to replay how to solve the problem
Odosketch (older kids):
  • Provides blank canvas
  • Can click on examples, and provide a replay of how the painting was drawn (good for art teachers, to teach how to draw and paint)

Tools for Interactive Whiteboard – Tammy (Part II)

Songs/Art:
Tenori – the389.com/works/tenori
  • create pattern sounds
**Dotty Dots**
  • Good with spelling out words in form of dots that move around
This Sand – thisissand.com
  • Online sand painting
  • good for rock formation – geolgogy
Virtual Keyboard: Have recipes for various songs and theme jingles on her website

Fun Games/Activities:
Toy Theater.com
  • Subject specific games
Fuel the Brain.com
  • Ex: good fraction game (Jelly Golf)
Jayisgames.com/games/magic-pen/
  • Game to move a ball by using various geometric shapes (practice physics)
Content-Specific:
Scholastic –
  • Story starter game
o Randomly selects funny story prompts
Sheppard Software –
  • Content-specific (SS/Science)
  • Animal games
Littlefingers.com/games/hats.html
  • Used to teach prepositions
Sciencenetlinks.com/interactives/powerplay.html
  • Power play – physics/motion/pullies
Scribblemaps.com
  • Students can come up and place markers and label them on the map
  • Students can have print out of the map, and draw marker on their map as other students mark it on the whiteboard
  • Can be used for “Flat Stanley” activity (for lower grades)
Travelpod
  • 12 different challenges for around the world knowledge
  • use this for locating states on the map…have to click on the right location and it times you – use for states studying!!
Graph Maker: http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/grapher.html
  • Creates graphs
Online Manipulatives: http://www.unpracticalmath.com/applets.html
  • Virtual Spinner
  • Gameboards
  • Dice